Titan Arum

Too bad the book isn't coming out a few days earlier...I'm in Denver, Colorado on the 4th! Maybe Brandon will have a few more east coast stops for the other two books coming out shortly after Shadows of Self? One can only hope.

TOR has released the dates and locations of Brandon's tour for Shadows of Self. I am saddened by the lack of love for east coast fans. I know I can't complain like all of the non-US fans, but after Philly was canceled this past winter during the Firefight tour, I was hoping he'd come back that way to make up for it! Anyways, here's the list of dates and locations for the tour. I hope many west coast Sharders can make it! Tuesday, October 6 BYU Bookstore – Midnight release! Provo, UT Tuesday, October 6 Tattered Cover Bookstore @ 6 PM Denver, CO Wednesday, October 7 Murder by the Book @ 6:30 PM Houston, TX Thursday, October 8 Mysterious Galaxy @ 6 PM San Diego, CA Friday, October 9 Borderlands @ 12 PM to 3 PM San Francisco, CA Friday, October 9 Kepler’s Books @ 7:30 PM Menlo Park, CA Saturday, October 10 Powell’s at Cedar Hills Crossing @ 7 PM Beaverton, OR Monday, October 12 Barnes & Noble @ 7 PM Oak Brook, IL Tuesday, October 13 Schuler Books @ 7 PM Lansing, MI Wednesday, October 14 Brookline Booksmith @ 6 PM Brookline, MA Friday, October 16 Manchester-Deansgate Waterstones @ 6 PM Manchester, England Saturday, October 17 London Piccadilly Waterstones @ 2 PM London, England Monday, October 19 Shaftesbury Ave. Forbidden Planet @ 7 PM London, England Tuesday, October 20 Sheffield Waterstones @ 1 PM (Note, I assume it's at the Orchard Square location...) Sheffield, England Tuesday, October 20 Newcastle Waterstones (Technically at the Newcastle Mining Institute) @ 6:30 PM Newcastle, England Wednesday, October 21 Edinburgh-West End Waterstones @ 6 PM Edinburgh, Scotland Thursday, October 22 Leeds Waterstones @ 1 PM Leeds, England Thursday, October 22 Nottingham Waterstones @ 7 PM Nottingham, England October 23rd thru October 25 East Midlands Conference Centre and Orcahrd Hotel Nottingham, England

Ahh yes. Warbreaker. I love that book so much that I'm rereading it right now. One word: Lightsong!

I love the Stormlight Archive and Mistborn, but I think my favorite story in the Cosmere is The Emperor's Soul. It's so well written and I love how...(TES spoilers obviously)

As lord Claincy said, this mostly manifests when we play games because we know the way each other thinks. For example, when we play Cranium together, we know the other's drawing more or less from the beginning. One time, my sister pulled the clay out of the tin, literally set it down on the table, and I knew somehow it was a gravestone without her doing anything to it. This does't necessarily mean we know what the other is thinking. Instead we are very good at guessing what the other is thinking or will do because we just know each other so well. When you grow up as babies together, you get really close. I don't know if you've ever seen the youtube videos of the twin babies who have their own language? It's like that. You just get each other and can anticipate what the other one may do. For the experience that I shared before...that's the only time we've ever had a connection where it seemed almost telepathic. I don't know why or how I knew something was wrong, but something was indeed off.

Ahh, this isn't so true. Nobody said that devotion has to be towards something good or artistic. For Shaor, she could have been devoted to getting everything that she wants by any means necessary...just like any spoiled child in our world. I know plenty of children who do everything in their power to get what they want from their parents or relatives, be it candy, a new video game, etc. Kids aren't stupid. They know how to manipulate situations and people. For example, my step-mother would do anything for her grandchildren, and they aren't afraid to ask her for what they want! Every year she takes one of them on a trip of their choosing. They've quickly discovered that they can ask to go ANYWHERE in the world. This year my niece, who's 13, asked to go on safari in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. She just got back from the trip last week.

When you see a "MAG" sign in Cambodia and get excited that there's a local Mistborn Adventure Game group that you may be able to play with! (The devastating truth about the MAG in Cambodia...because the reason it exists is quite sad)

Thanks for the feedback maxal! The reason why I chose 1 post as a form of activity other than viewing the forum is because any number greater than 1 is arbitrary. Who defines what a significant contribution is? As a statistician, anything that deviates from 0 has major implications, hence why I did a simple 0 vs. 1+. I really was interested in the opposite number: the total who didn't post. That says a lot more in my opinion. We more or less know that a very small fraction of users post relatively frequently, but we didn't know what percentage don't post at all. However, it would be very easy for me to go back and do new queries on the data with simple comparisons limited to larger numbers of posts vs. those who post less. But again, it comes back to what number should we consider a significant contribution? Is it 10? 20? 50 a month? Also, I cannot just compare the 1 time posters vs. the multiple posters. The data query search only allows me to specify greater than or less than a certain number of posts. I cannot exclude all the 0 posters. Unless the mods want to provide a spreadsheet of all of the data...then I would be in heaven!

Kipper recently noted that the 17th Shard has over 9000 members...to which Chaos chimed in to say that that number would change if we banned all of the spammers. Well, turns out, there is information on the 17th that leads me to assume that I can calculate the total number of banned Sharders and thus determine the total number of non-banned Sharders. The front page of the forum tells us that we have, as of this writing, 9521 members of the 17th Shard; however if you look at the data behind the "Overall Top Posters", we only have 7606 members, including those who have never posted before. Thus, we have a grand total of 1915 banned users. The following pie chart shows this break down in percentages: Percent of Banned Users This chart implies that our mods here at the 17th deserve a HUGE shout out for the work that they do on our behalf. If we assume that the vast majority of these banned users are spammers and that each of these spammers have created at least 2 spam threads…then our mods are working tirelessly to ensure that our corner of the internet is extremely user friendly for active users. So: With that said, the sort/search function within the “Overall Top Posters” is actually quite rich, and as a result I am able to determine even more user statistics. Of the 7606 non-banned users, 49.6% have NEVER posted a topic. That means that roughly half of our users are lurkers!o Lurkers who see this, please feel free to contribute to the community, or at least introduce yourselves! We don’t bite, but some of us do spike a lot. Since WOR was released, 56.1% of our user base, or 4265 users, have been active on the 17tho Active is defined as simply logging on and viewing the forum o Thus 43.9% of users have not been active or could have abandoned the 17th Shard since the release of arguably Brandon’s biggest book to date! o 36.5% of Sharders have posted at least 1 time somewhere on the forum since WOR was released In 2015, only 1887 users have been active on the 17tho Roughly only 24.8% of our total user base o 17.1% of Sharders have posted at least 1 time in 2015 During the month of July, 2015 only 737 Sharders were activeo This is roughly 9.7% of or total user base o Of these active users, 519 have made at least 1 post, or roughly 6.8% of our user base [Note: While I wrote this, we had two new Spammers join the 17th! This means we’ll get to increase the percent of banned Sharders soon!]

It seems like we don't have a full grasp on what actually would happen to a pre-Reod Elantrian worldhopped during the Reod or a post-Reod Hoed worldhopping. Obviously something must be going on with their Spiritweb as implied by the WOB about an Elantrians appearance. But I agree with Argent, their Spiritweb is still Elantrian no matter what when they worldhop. As Moogle also states, it seems like it would be too easy to fix an Elantrian in the sickly state by simply worldhopping elsewhere. It's obvious that the pool was some part of ritual for the Elantrians, so I'm sure they would have tried using the pool to fix themselves. So if they did, where are those Elantrians now? What happened to them after they passed through the pool? That question asked about what happens to Heod's passing through the pool really has me thinking now! I am not on Reddit, so I cannot ask a question about this to Brandon in his never-ending AMA. Would someone else ask if a Hoed were to pass through the pool and worldhop, would they be cured of their sickly state? Thanks!

As I was driving home from work I had a feeling something was wrong with my sister. I got home and couldn't find her. All of the lights were on and the backdoor was open. I had been frantically calling her up to that point to no avail. Finally someone picked up and it wasn't my sister. A stranger, sounding distant to my ears, telling me that whoever I was trying to call was in a bad car accident. I asked where, and found out it was only two blocks from home. I ran there and saw carnage. The car she was a passenger in had been t-boned by oncoming traffic as her driver was trying to turn onto our street. All the damage was on the passenger side, where she was. I looked in, screaming for her, because the damage looked crazy. The car door crumpled over her body because the seat back had failed and at impact, fallen back. She was lucky, because instead of the door slamming into her, it went over her body! She was awake but delirious. I asked how she was. Her response was priceless: "Where's my Carl's Jr.?". I knew she would be okay. In the end she had a few scrapes and bruises and a concussion. She was fortunate. But it was so weird that my twin intuition knew something was wrong. That was the most powerful twin connection we've ever had. Or at least I've had with her.

You know you're a Sanderfan when you learn that Babiji is a Yogi Guru born in the year 203 and is supposedly still alive giving us all love potions or curses on a daily basis on the 17th Shard.

I love that this thread is still going strong and that it's been respectful since that one person was banned. Another prime example why this community is so amazing. I too have a twin sister. We also had an older sister. As a result we had a lot of "feminine toys" around the house but a lot of non-gender specific toys as well. I would frequently play with the dolls/barbies/etc., because they were there already. I remember days, however, that my sisters would force me to play with them and their dolls when I didn't want to. There wasn't much I could do when big sister and twin sister tackled me, sat on me, and made me play as Ken to their Barbie. Ha, fond memories. Granted, I had my hot wheels too, which my twin sister and I discovered were super fun to race down the stairway banister (which was perfectly shaped to create a track that made it impossible for the cars to fall off of! The best part was that they slammed into a brick wall at full speed and sometimes blew up into pieces!). On a separate note, lord Claincy, did you ever have twin sense with your sister? Where you guys could finish each others sentences, or had an inkling that something was up with your sister?This happened on many occasions with my twin sister and me and as a result we never were allowed to be on the same team for games. Cranium? We beat everyone. Apples to Apples? Yep. However, there also was that day my sister got in a horrible car accident. I knew. I knew deep in my soul when it happened and that something was wrong. It was one of the scariest days of my life, even though it didn't happen to me directly.

As we all know, when Brandon travels he likes to "Brandalize" books at local bookstores, especially in airports. I've always hoped to stumble across one of these books, but I have no idea what bookstores he's done this wonderfully wicked deed at. I want to change that for everybody. As a result, I thought we should have a thread on where you can find Brandalized books and when they were Brandalized. Thus, if you see your local airport last had a Brandon signing in 2010, for example, there probably (hopefully!) aren't any left on the shelves and you probably don't need to check. However, if you know that just last week he stopped by and signed books, there could be a chance that you could get your very own Brandon-signed-book-at-no-additional-cost-or-effort-by-you. If you see/hear/read of any Brandalized books, let me know here in this thread and I'll update this master OP. Usually Brandon lets us know via Twitter when he's Brandalized. However, if you stumble across any in the wild let me know here as well. If you go to a location on the list, update us to tell us if any signed books remain and I'll add it as a new line item if they do. Happy Brandalized book hunting everyone! Date City/Location Book Store August 23rd, 2015 Spokane Airport, WA Auntie's Bookstore, past security August 23rd, 2015 Spokane, WA Auntie's Bookstore, Downtown August 19th, 2015 Salt Lake City Airport, Utah Simply Books, Gate C7? BONUS: Magnets included! July 29th, 2015 Salt Lake City, Utah Gateway Barnes and Noble July 12th, 2015 San Diego, CA Airport Warwick’s July 9th, 2015 Salt Lake City, Utah Airport Simply Books, Gate C7 July 8th, 2015 Orem, Utah Barnes and Noble June 30th, 2015 San Diego, CA Airport Warwick’s May 21st, 2015 Salt Lake City, Utah Airport Simply Books, Gate C7 April 20th, 2015 Seattle-Tacoma Airport, WA Hudson News, S Gates

I agree with lord_mistborn4 and Moogle. If I could go back in time and re-read Brandon's works, Warbreaker would have been before Stormlight Archive. I read SA first out of all of his books (excluding WoT, of course), and missed so many references. However, it was extremely rewarding re-reading the series after reading all of his other books, because then everything I missed was suddenly jumping off the page.

Wait a second...how did you know I was posting from Southeast Asia?! I didn't mention it here. Did I mention it somewhere else? I'm in Cambodia for a few weeks for work... Thank you for catching my mistake. I meant to say Cultivation and Honor were romantically linked, but that's what I get for hastily writing something! Also, I am starting to really like your idea with the mandates. Thanks for clarifying mandate vs. intent in your response to LeftInch. Hmm, your idea of the Nightwatcher as a spren of both Cultivation and Odium is interesting. I like the idea, but I could argue that it is still just of Cultivation. Let's look at the mandates you and kaellok mention: survival and growth. Both survival and growth require fallow periods, for plants (especially agriculture) and animals. These fallow periods are usually seasonal. Think dry season or winter vs. wet season and summer, for example. Thus the curse of life is our fallow period. Plants and animals cannot always constantly bear fruit or explore the land looking for food and mates. Beacause both need fallow time to flourish. For animals, this is rest, hibernation, etc., which typically occurs during the cold or dry season. For plants it is perseverance through the dry and cold times when growth is stunted or deferred as well as letting fields go fallow to re-nourish the soil. This curse makes us stronger and makes both more adaptable. Thus, in my mind, this aspect of boons and curses could be just from Cultivation.

With regards to Renarin, given what you describe:

Ok, I'm late to this party with regards to the "Do the Hoed actually die when they go in the pool" question. I have a few thoughts: If the Hoed don't die when they pass through the pool in the mountains, does this mean that all previous Elantrians and Hoed who had passed through the pool are now Elantrians again, since Raoden fixed AonDor? I am now imagining in the Elantris sequel a sudden influx of Elantrians coming "home". Also, if an Elantrian goes through the pool prior to the the Reod, did/could they become Hoed wherever they were or at least the sickly version of Elantrians? For example, if they worldhopped elsewhere, what would have happened to them? Would they become the wretches and invalid beggars common on so many worlds? And once AonDor was fixed, would they miraculously be healed?

Ahh, you probably should take the letter with a grain of salt. Whoever wrote the letter (whom most of us probably agree upon) is inherently biased. If this person had some disagreement with Rayse then of course they'll say he's not a good person. But there is no guarantee that this is true. It's all a matter of personal opinion. For example, in US politics, a very liberal Democrat would say someone like a super conservative Republican is not a good person...whereas people who agree with the super conservative republican would disagree with such an assessment.

Most of the spam has Hindi and Bengali script, which leads me to assume that the spammers reside in India. It's no surprise that they come on in the dead of night relative to the US. It's a 9.5 hour time difference between EST and IST and 12.5 hour difference between PST and IST.

Alloy of Law

Confused, your theorizing is a very welcome breath of fresh air from a newbie! I'm glad you're part of this forum. Your argument is well thought out, and I agree with the idea that Shard's are not limited to their named Intent. I agree that their Intent is not so black and white. But part of the forum, as your first 800 words state, is to discuss what we read in a critical, yet friendly manner. So here it goes. First, though, a question: what's the difference between a mandate and intent? They seem synonymous here. Could you further explain why you make such a distinction? I believe that what you are calling mandates are just additional aspects of the Intent, or even, speculatively, old vestiges of the shardholders original personality. With regards to Cultivation potentially being the survival Shard, I'm not inclined to believe this. The question Chaos posed to get this answer was simply: Unless Brandon completely disregarded the "have not seen before" aspect, I doubt it's Cultivation. (Granted, he does misunderstand questions asked of him sometimes, but this one was written down.) Furthermore, if you were trying to hide from Odium, would you hide in the exact same system as him? The only time you'd do this is if you assume that his backyard would be the last place that he'd look for you. Odium probably isn't stupid and already knows that Cultivation is on Roshar since we know the two were romantically linked to each other and came to Roshar at the same time. Now, if Odium is going about killing Shards, why would he not kill Cultivation? My theory: because WOB says: The Parshendi, while not originally of Cultivation (nor are they originally of Odium), are now somehow linked to Cultivation. If Odium kills Cultivation, he'd probably alter some of his agents on Roshar in an unknown way. This is probably a risk he's not willing to currently take. Lastly, I don't agree with your mandate for Odium. As you noted, Odium is associated with negative connotation; anger according to you. Intensity does not need to be negative. In fact, intensity can be a very positive attribute. For example, intensity is needed for extreme concentration; is a hallmark for ambitious people; and is basically a requirement for being POTUS, otherwise the POTUS would never be taken seriously. People who are very cautious can also be very intense. Furthermore, someone passionate about something can be described as intense. The word odium is defined as "general or widespread hatred or disgust incurred by someone as a result of their actions." I think that synonyms for this would be abhorrence and loathing. When Eshonai feels spite, irritability, and fury towards her surroundings, is it derived from Odiuim's intent? I'd say yes. Are these her natural feelings? I'd say no. So why is she suddenly feeling all of these negative things? Because of Odium's Intent of hatred and disgust. Maybe, what you seem to call mandates, the secondary part of his Intent is an amplification of this hatred. He flames (or, using an Allomantic term) or riots a person's negative and abhorrent feelings.

I know that there are a lot of people on the Shard who are gamers and who also are interested in Myers-Briggs personality assessments. I stumbled across a quiz that is a Myers-Briggs like assessment of what type of gamer you are. Apparently I am a gamer that is action-oriented, analytical, relaxed, independent, and practical. This is pretty spot on for me, since I love action games, strategy-based games, puzzle games, and do not enjoy playing online with other people. I like to take things slowly and beat games after figuring out the best and most practical approach to a given task/level/whatever. As someone who also likes graphs, the results of the quiz spit out a nifty six-axis graph of your gamer type. Here's mine, and it vaguely looks like a tweaked out Pac-Man: What type of gamer personality are other Sharders? Is there something about us all being Sanderfans that will mean we're similar types of gamers?